Company email (March 2019)
"Newcastle Brown Ale is not suitable for vegans as this is clarified with isinglass, which is fish derived." [this came from Heineken UK, so we going with the understanding that this backs up the Feb 2019 and Oct 2018 responses]

Company email (February 2019)
"Newcastle Brown Ale brewed and available in the UK is not suitable for vegans."

Company email (October 2018)
"All of our products are vegan, including our Newcastle Brown Ale. We do not use isinglass in any of our products."

Company email (April 2018)
"We are happy to inform you that all of our beers... are suitable for vegans. We do not use any animal materials or materials derived from animals in our products or during production."

[Google translation: "Our products do not contain ingredients of animal origin and we do not use "bonding processes" of animal origin as well. All the adhesives used on packaging of our different brands do not contain casein, they are of synthetic origin as well for the labels of paper as those of plastic."]

Company email (November 2015):
"Symonds Founders Reserve does not contain any isinglass, gelatine or cochineal. It is only at risk of carryover from other products that do."

[Googel translation: "Products that are produced in the Netherlands are vegan. For products produced abroad, we can not give this guarantee ; this because we do not require the adhesive used for the labels. The content of the product than identical, but it could be that the labels than with bone glue or the like to be stuck on the bottles. We can therefore not comment on foreign brewers."]

Company email regarding sugar (June 2013):
"For the production of Heineken and Heineken Dark Lager only barley malt, hops and water are being used as raw materials. There are no sugars or syrups added. The yeast ferments all fermentable sugars formed from the starch from the malted barley. In the brewing process, all starch is converted into glucose, fructose, maltose and maltotriose, which are fermentable sugars. These are converted during fermentation into alcohol and CO2."

Tiger small pack and keg in UK, Amstel Keg in UK and Moretti Keg in UK are not brewed using animal derived products however there is a possibility of carryover from some of our beers that do, therefore we do not claim that they are vegetarian.

We do not claim that any of our Ciders are Vegetarian."

Q: "Could I trouble you further to elaborate on “small pack only” and the reference to “carryover”?"

A: "Small pack means packaged product not draught and carryover just means that there is a possibility of contact with other beers"

Note from Michael: "Responses from Heineken UK to my query, which is not entirely consistent with a previous response. They previously stated that all Amstel was o.k., but the caveat regarding “carryover” sounds like that published on the ingredients lists of vegan foods here, i.e. “may contain......”, which the Vegan Society finds acceptable on the basis of allergy awareness according to EU rules on labelling."

Company email (November 2012): [in regard to Woodpecker Cider in the UK]
"I can confirm we do not use finings or any animal products such as gelatine for filtration of cider. However, we do not claim that any of our ciders are vegetarian/vegan as although the majority of our ciders do not have any animal derived ingredients there is a possibility of carryover from some of our ciders that do."
[Can I ask how the possibility of carryover of animal derived ingredients from one cider to another occurs?]
"The natural dye cochineal is used in some of our ciders including Woodpecker, the reason we advise that none of our ciders are suitable for vegans/vegetarians is that due to the shared production environment we can not guarantee that there will not be some carryover."

Company email(October 2012): [in regard to Scrumpy Jack Cider (a Symonds Cider)]
"basically we do not state that any of our ciders are suitable for vegans/vegetarians as although the majority of our ciders do not have any animal derived ingredients there is a possibility of carryover from some of our ciders that do."

Company email (April 2012):
"We don't use finings or any animal products such as gelatin for filtration of cider or for juice produced by ourselves or our suppliers.

Some of our ciders use Cochineal. While the majority of our ciders do not use Cochineal as they are produced in the same site as some of our ciders that do and they share processes and equipment (i.e. carryover), therefore we do not claim that any of our ciders are vegetarian."

[Ciders using cochineal]: "at present it is only Bulmers Original."

Company email from Heineken UK, Oct 2011:

"I can however confirm that Heineken and Amstel are suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans."

Company Email (Marietta.Julio@heineken.com) regarding Heineken Amsterdam: April 2011
"Our beer can be referred to as vegan. All ingredients are natural and from
plant sources. No materials of animal sources are used. We don't use products of animal origin in the refining and filrating
process. All our beer is filtered through kieselguhr filters (the calciferous
skeletons of diatoms). When we first received questions from our vegan
consumers, this lead us to investigate: is a diatom a single cell animal or
is it a plant? The American dictionary of biology says : Diatoms contain chlorophyll and are photosyntetic. In older classifications
they are identified as primitive plants. Because they are indeed plant-like in many respects, it is still common practice to use the term "plant".
(Biological Science; Keeton; 3rd ed. (page 14))
According to this description of the diatom, we can conclude that the cell is considered as a plant.
This makes it possible for us to call our beer vegan."

Note from Karoliina (jan 2011)
"I contacted Desperados ( a tequila flavored beer) originated from france, and as I had to contact the french page, as the english one didn't seem to have a working e-mail this is the response I got from them, and they say that desperados does not contain any animal based product in the beer. as the beer is under the heineken group i can well believe that it might be vegan too then :)"

Company email: Jan 2010
Thank you for your recent email message. We appreciate you taking time to contact us regarding our company and our products. There are no animal products used in the beer as ingredients, nor are they used in the filtration process. Heineken can be considered Vegan friendly."

Email 2:
Thank you for your recent email message. We appreciate you taking time to contact us regarding our company and our products. There are no animal products used in the beer as ingredients, nor are they used in the filtration process. Heineken can be considered Vegan friendly.

Company Email:
"Additionally, the following foreign are produced under licence by LNA (Australia & New Zealand):
Heineken."

Email regarding the UK:

"I can however confirm that Heineken and Amstel are suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans. "